Friday, May 15, 2015

Sibu wants more direct flights

SIBU: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) is pushing for more direct flights, particularly the Sibu-Kota Kinabalu (KK) route, as it gears up for the Visit Sibu Year 2016 which is expected to see many visitors from Korea and Japan.

Council deputy chairman Dato Andrew Wong said they were targeting the revival of Sibu-KK flight by AirAsia.

“In Sibu, we are very realistic as we are not calling for direct flights from Europe. We are eyeing direct flights from major air transit hubs.

“During Visit Sibu Year, we want to introduce more youth-related events like cyber gaming and comic convention, which are huge events in Korea and Japan. There are many flights from Korea to KK. Therefore, if we can get Korea-KK-Sibu through AirAsia, that will be fantastic.

“So we need to make sure that these tourists are able to come in. That is why we are pushing for the Sibu-KK direct flight by AirAsia to be revived.

“If you rank them in terms of priority, Sibu-KK is the number one priority,” Wong told The Borneo Post.

With all due respect, he figured MasWings had smaller aircraft, fewer flights and their fares cost more.

Citing his own research, he said it was cheaper to fly from KK to Kuching and Sibu on other airlines than on a KK-Sibu MasWings direct flight.

Wong disclosed that they were also fighting for Sibu-Singapore direct flight, saying Singapore was also a major transit hub.